1. #1

    Critique plz - New Gaming Rig

    Talked my friend out of a "gaming laptop" and into letting me build her a desktop. Trying to take advantage of some of those "Black Friday" deals. I will buy parts over the weekend(into monday), while waiting on other parts that aren't on sale yet in hopes that they will be sometime this weekend.

    Budget $850(ish), moderate gaming @ 1920x1080 resolution for now. Buyer wanted a future proof rig that will last several years. She will not be doing any extreme overclocking. I will do some light OC'ing on the CPU on the stock cooler for now at the buyers request. Managed to somewhat color coordinate everything at the buyers request(She doesn't want conflicting colors)

    PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

    CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Microcenter)
    Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($94.99 @ Amazon)
    Memory: G.Skill Value 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($34.49 @ Newegg)
    Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Newegg)
    Storage: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($74.99 @ Newegg)
    Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB Video Card ($231.98 @ Newegg)
    Case: Thermaltake Commander MS/I Snow Edition (White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($52.22 @ Amazon)
    Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling Silencer MK III 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($49.99 @ Newegg)
    Optical Drive: Lite-On ihes112-04 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer ($54.99 @ Newegg)
    Total: $813.63
    (Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
    (Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-22 03:47 EST-0500)
    Last edited by BruceG87; 2012-11-22 at 08:49 AM. Reason: EDIT - Will be in the area of a microcenter come Sat. Going to order for store pickup, which opens up my budget a bit more.
    i5-3570k @ 4.6Ghz | Phanteks TC14PE | Asus Sabertooth Z77 | Gigabyte GTX 1080 | 16GB Corsair Vengeance
    Asus Xonar Essence STX | Crucial M4 256MB | Seasonic X760 Gold | Silverstone FT02

    Asus PG258Q 240Hz 24.5" | Das Keyboard 4 Pro | Logitech G502 | Audiotechnica ATH-AD900X | Blue Yeti

  2. #2
    Looks good, but make sure to grab whatever version of the 7870 is on sale and a decent brand if you don't care about the warranty length.

  3. #3
    I am Murloc! Xuvial's Avatar
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    Never even heard of that PSU company but the specs look sound, single rail with 12v @38a...plus it's consistent with your buyer's theme...

    Anyway, if you're doing light OC'ing the stock cooler is just silly, not when you can get a vastly better aftermarket one for a measly $20:
    Xigmatek Gaia - $19.99 - Newegg

    You want an install-and-forget build if it's for someone else, so chuck in that cooler and forget about any potential heat issues cropping up in the future. Ivy Bridge does run pretty warm. Should also remain consistent with the black/white theme, big plus :P

    Other than that nothing else to recommend, solid build, GL to you and your buyer
    Last edited by Xuvial; 2012-11-23 at 06:49 AM.
    WoW Character: Wintel - Frostmourne (OCE)
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  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Xuvial View Post
    Never even heard of that PSU company but the specs look sound, single rail with 12v @38a...plus it's consistent with your buyer's theme...

    Anyway, if you're doing light OC'ing the stock cooler is just silly, not when you can get a vastly better aftermarket one for a measly $20:
    Xigmatek Gaia - $19.99 - Newegg

    You want an install-and-forget build if it's for someone else, so chuck in that cooler and forget about any potential heat issues cropping up in the future. Ivy Bridge does run pretty warm. Should also remain consistent with the black/white theme, big plus :P

    Other than that nothing else to recommend, solid build, GL to you and your buyer
    PC Power and Cooling is actually owned by OCZ, but in the case of this specific model is manufactured by SeaSonic. When I read into it, it was a no brainer for the price and the fact that it matches the color scheme perfectly.

    While I was given the budget to work with, the buyer insisted that she doesn't care about an aftermarket cooler for now. However, I managed to use a great deal less of the budget originally given without sacrificing a thing from the build posted above. Not to mention around $100 worth of rebates/gift cards, I'm sure a cooler will come quickly. Though the buyer(a friend of mine) insisted that I keep the rebates/gift cards as payment. In which case, I'll be purchasing an H100 and giving her my wonderful yet giant Phanteks cooler and a solid everyday overclock. (EDIT lol I better see if it'd fit in her case first)

    I already bought most of the rig. Still waiting on the HDD/Bluray/ram/mobo to see if they go on any kind of sale anywhere between now and monday.
    i5-3570k @ 4.6Ghz | Phanteks TC14PE | Asus Sabertooth Z77 | Gigabyte GTX 1080 | 16GB Corsair Vengeance
    Asus Xonar Essence STX | Crucial M4 256MB | Seasonic X760 Gold | Silverstone FT02

    Asus PG258Q 240Hz 24.5" | Das Keyboard 4 Pro | Logitech G502 | Audiotechnica ATH-AD900X | Blue Yeti

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